Wallflower - Erysimum cheiri

Description

Medium to tall plant covered with flattened hairs. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, untoothed, the uppermost narrower. Flowers yellow or orange-brown, large 20 to 25 mm, very fragrant.

Identification difficulty
ID guidance

Various colours: yellow, orange, red, brown and purple. Seed-pods long and erect - i.e folded upwards alongside stem; seed-pods without beak, splitting into 2 valves with usually one row of seeds in each valve.  Hairy; hairs are stellate (i.e. bracnched).  Lower leaves entire, toothed.  Distingushed from hybrid wallflower (E x marshallii) by divergent lobes of stigma and flattened seed-pods.

Recording advice

Check seed-pods and stigmas of orange specimens for E x marshallii

Habitat

Rocky habitats such as walls and cliffs.

When to see it

Flowers March to June.

Life History

Perennial.

UK Status

Widespread in England and Wales, more coastal in Scotland.

VC55 Status

Occasional on walls in Leicestershire and Rutland, often as an established garden escape. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 23 of the 617 tetrads.

Leicestershire & Rutland Map

MAP KEY:

Yellow squares = NBN records (all known data)
Coloured circles = NatureSpot records: 2020+ | 2015-2019 | pre-2015

UK Map

Species profile

Common names
Wallflower
Species group:
Wildflowers
Kingdom:
Plantae
Order:
Brassicales
Family:
Brassicaceae
Records on NatureSpot:
26
First record:
01/05/2015 (Calow, Graham)
Last record:
20/03/2024 (Pugh, Dylan)

Total records by month

% of records within its species group

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